ALL HEART STRINGS
Subway guitarist lets the poor take his tips
This New Yorker is helping struggling straphangers one bluegrass song at a time.
Will Boyajian, a performer in the 42nd Street-Port Authority Bus Terminal subway station, collects plenty of cash by busking — but gives away every dime before calling it a day.
“If you’re homeless or need help, take as much as you need from the case,” reads a handwritten sign, propped up against a black guitar case filled with dollar bills.
The shaggy-haired guitarist doesn’t stop anyone from dipping into the pot, which collects as much as $400 a day, trusting that those who take money really need it.
He notes that says only a handful of people have actually cleared out the entire guitar case.
“It’s really wild,” Boyajian, 26, said. “Some people come up and take a dollar or take five dollars, some people come up and take 80 dollars . . . It’s not my job to judge, it’s just my job to give.”
His goal is to end each day with zero dollars. If there’s leftover, he buys singleride MetroCards and passes them out or hands out dollars on the street.
He said a young man with a dog struck a chord with him Sunday night.
“I probably had 40 or 50 left, and my voice was trashed, and I wanted to go home,” Boyajian recounted.
“I said, ‘Just empty it out, man . . . Treat yourself.’ And [he said] it’s enough for one of those hotels that let the dogs come, and he told the dog, ‘Moby, we’re going to be OK.’ ”
Boyajian started his giving campaign, which he calls Hopeful Cases, a week ago and wants to change the way New Yorkers think about donating.
“When I first moved to the city . . . this dude got on the train . . . and was clearly homeless,” he told The Post.
“The whole train moved away. None of us will ever experience that type of rejection in our lives.”
Boyajian saved up money for the project by spending eight months as a performer for Norwegian Cruise Line.
Struggling New Yorkers on the platform Monday afternoon were grateful for Boyajian’s help.
“I think it’s beautiful because people don’t know what you can do with 10 dollars . . . It’s two boxes of cereal and milk,” said Christopher Smith, who took two $5 bills from the pile.
Keith Owens, 50, who has been homeless off and on since the 1990s and isn’t currently receiving any welfare, grabbed a handful of bills and thanked Boyajian for the cash.
“I told him I’d leave some for someone else. I didn’t take it all,” Owens told The Post.
Leslie Glascock, from Huntington, LI, watched her daughter hand Boyajian a dollar bill and called the project “fantastic.”
“We need more people like that . . . I think it reflects New York so well,” she said.